Who owns your virtual life?

[WilHarris]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/...al_life/1.html

[Glider]

Maybe it's time for some persons to unplug and see the real world

[Cthippo]

This is the future, like it or no.

I know that Bit-Tech serves a similar role for me. When I get home from work to an empty house at 2 am, BT is pretty much the extent of my socializing. I could go on about this at length, but I need to go to bed

[Lazlow]

Page 3 - is that Keenan from Keenan and Kel fame? If it is, good to see him wearing orange.

On topic - I agree that the major thing lacking in most MMORPGs, is player created content.

[Houck]

I hate MMO Games

[TheoGeo]

Originally Posted by Houck

I hate MMO Games

thanks for the well thought out and constructive comment.

I do agree that user contribution is an important part of a game, however i dont think that it is a requirement of a game. While i like being able to build my own social world and have a place where interaction is the main object, i still believe there will always be a place for the sit down and experience it aproach to gaming. You just sometimes need that story to be told to you, there can only be so many user generated games in your life before it becomes too much.

I cant believe you managed to go through a whole article about user generated content without mentioning Spore.

[Faulk_Wulf]

Originally Posted by Houck

I hate MMO Games

Originally Posted by TheoGeo

thanks for the well thought out and constructive comment.

I'll elaborate then. I hate most MMORPG's because there is no real sense of story or over arching plot. Everyone is doing the same thing and everyone is going towards the same ending as you in parrallel. Sure there are monsters and tons of other players, but there is no ending, no result goal.

I love RPG's such as Final Fantasy and Xenogears, because they have a great story, and get you wrapped up in the history (and future) of your characters. You controlling someone with depth and emotion.

When you create a character for an MMORPG, you loose that history and feeling and emotion. Of course its more then that, cause sure you could go around telling everyone about your character's past: But how many people in an MMORPG ever stay "in character"? Very few in my experience. Even I have a hard time staying in character. There is always some idiot saying something retarded, or the introduction of some real world thing. ("AFK, need to get lunch.") etc, etc.

Honostly, I've never seen the point of paying monthly for something that has little dirrection or plot, when I can pay once for a game with an epic story. Though to be fair: I never really cared for Dungeons and Dragons either.

---

The other thing I should address while I'm here prattling on is that I agree that user created content should always be allowed by a game producer. I understand not allowing people to mod the main game, but they should at least always release an SDK. (Preferably something like Half-Life's, and not like Fear's, because Fear's map editor really kinda sucks. At least the version that I tried to understand.) Mods are what give games life long after a game would have otherwise died and have been forgotten.

People still play Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun / Red Alert 2. An many do so because of modifications to the game. I even went out and bought San Andreas for PC even though I had it on PS2, solely because I could customize the content on the PC version.

The ability to look at something and go: "Hey, I made that!" is a remarkable experience in and of itself. Spore looks like it has a great potential to it. The ability to create your own race(s) and then send them off exploring other worlds/galaxies? I think a Massively-Single-Player expereince is a great idea for RPG's. Imagine if you did that with a traditional RPG? People create objects and characters as they go through the game, and then when you enter itno a city, it goes off and downloads user created content that you can buy and use. But you don't get distracted by the people badgering on, because all the people you'll speak within your game would still be NPC's. Meaning that you won't lose the emersion in the game.



And on that note, I'm outta here. Great article, btw.

[Sifter3000]

Originally Posted by TheoGeo

I cant believe you managed to go through a whole article about user generated content without mentioning Spore.

Yeah... that probably should have been in there. D'oh! That said, Spore isn't out yet, and the danger about talking too much about stuff that's pre-release is that it can sound like "OMG how awesome will this be"... especially when it's a Will Wright game, which the media always love....

Alex

CPC, usually.
My weblog: http://www.thewiredjester.co.uk

[olly_lewis]

The article should say: "Who own your virtual ass" and its going to get worse and bigger, I personally staff far, far, FAR away from Second Life and MMOs such as that, its full of strange people who think that the "seond" mean first and seems to think they can enhance their lives through a game and reinforce their own lives through it. But WoW and Fantasy Star Online arn't as wierd and though they are great games, I don't play them, no appeal.
Though user generated content is the future of games and the web its going to be a while until we really set it unfold and get really interesting. The games industry in general needs it and websites such as flickr etc are great and I am a user here and there.... There a good idea, but somehow they attract a lot of people who arn't sound of mind...

[Bladestorm]

Giving people ownership of anything they own in-game opens up a giant can of worms, most notably because it allows a real-world value to be asociated with those items.

Off the top of my head some of the problems with that :

#1 : Where money can be made, farmers will farm it and sell it on, which tends to cause inflation, making the game harder for the people playing without shelling out extra cash and easier for those willing to just pour cash in.

#2 : If items in the world are owned by the gamers, people who get banned have a possible avenue to sue the operator for compensation or denying access to there "assets"

#3 : Take a game like EVE where major theft is a possibility : the GHSC theft had an ebay value of about £10,000(or was it £30,000 ?), had that property been owned by the gamers do you think they would have tried to start legal action against the thieves ? When the game developers are trying to promote free-form gameplay as much as possible, having players prosecuted for it would be a problem.

[Cthippo]

Originally Posted by Faulk_Wulf

I'll elaborate then. I hate most MMORPG's because there is no real sense of story or over arching plot. Everyone is doing the same thing and everyone is going towards the same ending as you in parrallel. Sure there are monsters and tons of other players, but there is no ending, no result goal.

Not to put words in your mouth, but what I read there is "I hate MMOs because they're too much like real life". Not a criticism, just an observation. I guess it has to do with what people want out of their gaming expiereince. Some people are seeking an escape from life, sort of like a movie. For others, they're seeking a surrogate life, one that is more exciting and worthwhile than their real one.

Originally Posted by WireFrame

bonk. Ignore me

have been all along

[Firehed]

Originally Posted by Lazlow

Page 3 - is that Keenan from Keenan and Kel fame? If it is, good to see him wearing orange.

On topic - I agree that the major thing lacking in most MMORPGs, is player created content.

I think so...he's been in quite a few things since that ol' show

Anyways, I personally hate MMOs as well, but really due to the fact that you tend to get a bunch of idiots that ruin it for most people. It's a problem for all games, but it's a bit harder to just pop on to a new server in an MMO than on an FPS or whatever. That plus monthly fees... I'm just too cheap. I've never really cared for the RPG genre on the PC anyways... it's okay but it's one style of game that I do tend to prefer on a console for some reason.

[Nature]

I think we can all agree that online gaming can never replace a real conversation with someone intamently or a group. Iffinite universal interactivity is something only found "in the flesh"...

We should only be phacist, and regulate the GP of these ghoulish nerds. No no that doesn't work does it>?? Okay will then just make the MMO's boring and lame like they are now and get everyone girlfriends that thinks city of heros and goblins are "where it's at".

[B3CK]

Just lost 1 1/2 hrs. looking through http://www.flickr.com/ ... then I went to sign up/in ,,, must have yahoo id account.

I wish I didn't have to have so many damn id's, acct's that's just mean.

[apoogod]

Sorry for bring this back up but do people really make real world money at this game Second life?

[Hovis]

Originally Posted by apoogod

Sorry for bring this back up but do people really make real world money at this game Second life?

Can't speak for Second Life per se, but overall online item trade is worth more than the online game industry. In countries with a low cost of living like China and Russia you can earn a living gaming and selling the proceeds no problem.

[specofdust]

Originally Posted by apoogod

Sorry for bring this back up but do people really make real world money at this game Second life?

Probably, they certainly make money in Project Entropia. I made about £240 by getting extremely lucky. You gotta remember with online things like this, if they're designed with real money in mind they're designed so that the vast majority of that money goes to people who aren't the players. It's just like a casino, you might be one of the few schmucks who gets lucky but the vast majority of people are just paying for those schmucks and the owners vast salaries.